Just for the record, the solution was simple. I needed to add the mount 
option "nohide" to the exports file on the server.
This was necessary because I was exporting several directories from one 
server. In this case, nsf4 requires you to generate a pseudo filesystem 
which has a common root directory. The exported directories are 
"bound" to the root directory in the fstab file on the server, and 
the root directory and its subdirectories are exported separately. The 
default behavior in this situation is to hide the files in the subdirectories, 
unless the "nohide" option is given.

Eve

On Tue, 29 Sep 2009, Michael Mansour wrote:

> Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:28:44 +1100
> From: Michael Mansour <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Eve V. E. Kovacs <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: nfsv4 services
> 
> Hi Eve,
>
>> We are trying to set up nfsv4 services on an SL5.3 server.
>> We have followed various tutorials on the web, and everything
>> appears to be working correctly. However, when we mount the exported
>> filesystems on the client, (which happens with no errors), we can't
>> see any of the files. The client thinks that the filesystem is
>> mounted, but when we try to do a directory listing there is nothing there.
>>
>> Does anybody have any ideas on what we might be doing wrong?
>
> NFS is bound by the internal permissions of the filesystem.
>
> The first thing I would look at is the file and directory permissions on the
> exported NFS filesystem.
>
> If the clients don't have read permissions to those files/directories, then
> NFS clients won't be able to see them regardless of what you do via the NFS
> protocol.
>
> Regards,
>
> Michael.
>
>> Thanks
>> Eve
>

***************************************************************
Eve Kovacs
Argonne National Laboratory,
Room E-217, Bldg. 362, HEP
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, IL 60439 USA
Phone: (630)-252-6208
Fax:   (630)-252-5047
email: [log in to unmask]
***************************************************************